Staff

Fabian joined the lab in early 2016 as both Lab Manager and Research Technician. He was tasked with creating several hundred constructs of ASD Gene Variants in a variety of expression clones for UBC's ASD collaboration, as well as various cloning projects for the Haas Lab. He is designing and performing all of the flow cytometry-based high-throughput screening for various functional and biochemical features of ASD-associated gene variants. As Lab Manager, he is also in charge of everything related to lab safety and new Haas Lab member orientations, as well as teaching new Undergraduates joining the lab to learn molecular biology techniques.

DK is currently a PhD student in the Haas Lab. DK is investigating how seizures alter dendritogenesis and synaptogenesis by directly imaging developing neurons during experimentally induced seizures within the intact and awake brain.

Tristan investigates how growing neurons in developing vertebrate brains integrate synaptic input and encode information in an action potential output, and how these integration and encoding properties change with experience across the entire dendritic arbor. To be able to record the different patterns of activity across the entire 3D space of neuron, he employs a verity of genetically encoded biosensors and images individual neurons in Xenopus tadpoles in vivo using a custom built acousto-optics based random-access two-photon laser-scanning microscope system.

Sina works on two major projects. The first project is to study the effects of Early-Life Seizures (ELSs) on the developing brain, which largely involves immunohistochemistry, 2-photon and confocal imaging, and associated analysis. The second project is a high-throughput study of the effects of genetic mutations associated with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) on protein structure and function. This project involves the growth, maintenance, and genetic manipulation of large-scale cell culture assays.